Privacy Policy

Your privacy is of utmost importance to BMW St. John’s (The Ultimate Driving Company Inc.). Any personal information that you provide to us through, or on, our websites will be governed by this privacy policy (the “Policy”). Therefore, it is important that you read and understand this Policy prior to providing any personal information about yourself. Our privacy policy is a formal statement of principles concerning the minimum requirements for the protection of personal information provided by our individual customers and employees. We are committed to meeting or exceeding the privacy standards established by federal and provincial legislation. Our information handling practices comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) (“PIPEDA”).

BMW St. John’s has established policies and procedures to comply with this Policy, and has designated one or more persons accountable for compliance to it. The Privacy contact designated by BMW St. John’s can be contacted by email at reception@bmwstjohns.ca; by telephone at 1-709-754-3269.

Personal Information Defined

Personal information is information that distinctively refers to you, such as your name, address, birth date, gender, marital status, financial information etc. Keep in mind that if you identify yourself as an employee of an organization, your name, title, business address or business telephone number would not be considered personal information.

We collect, use and disclose personal information supplied by you for yourself and for our respective related companies and business partners (lists available on request) in order (a) to provide you with products (vehicles, parts, accessories, etc.), (b) to perform services (including Warranty, owner notifications, service reminders, etc.), (c) to improve our products and services, (d) to initiate, maintain and develop our relationship with you (including product and service information, offers, etc.), (e) to administer billing, accounting and security measures in relation to your business with us and (f) to comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

Customer Option to “Opt-Out”

You may decide that you would prefer that we do not use or disclose your personal information for BMW related marketing purposes or as otherwise noted in this Privacy Policy (excepting legal and/or contractual obligations), in particular, for some or all of the following:

BMW St. John’s Special Events and Promotions that may include electronic or paper format notification of comparison drive events, information for community events, new car launches, brochures, etc.

BMW St. John’s Promotions that may include retailer event information, service clinics, etc.

Within our website, you may be asked to provide personal information about yourself. BMW St. John’s will collect personal information only when you voluntarily provide it. Be assured that the personal information you provide remains strictly confidential and will be used or disclosed only for the purposes for which it was collected and will not be used or disclosed for any other reason unless you have given us consent to do so.

We collect personal information for registration on our mailing list, for eligibility to participate in a contest, survey or promotion, or simply for informing you of upcoming events or special offers. In other areas of our website, personal information is requested in order to apply for credit in respect to a lease or finance or to obtain information related to pre-owned products. The personal information you provide will only be collected and used for the purposes that have been identified. In certain parts of this website where we require that you provide us with personal information such as credit card information, we will protect the security of your personal information during transmission by using industry standard encryption technology.

We do, however, discourage you from sending any sensitive personal information (that is, credit card information) via regular email and limit such disclosure to the secure area within the website where it may be specifically requested.

BMW St. John’s will not knowingly encourage children under the age of 13 to register at its website.

Sharing of Information

The information that you provide to us will only be used by BMW St. John’s and our respective related and/or affiliated companies and business partners (such as BMW Group Canada). It will assist us in providing products and services to you that will benefit you as a valued customer. Exceptions may include disclosing information to third parties assisting us in servicing and processing your credit account, to verify creditworthiness or to assist you in answering an inquiry. We may also disclose information to third party companies that perform marketing services on our behalf. In any event, we are responsible for the protection of your personal information in our possession. Any information we may transfer to a third party as noted above remains our responsibility and, as such, we contractually require any third-party organization to protect the personal information disclosed to them in a manner consistent with our own internal privacy practices, or as required by law. Under limited circumstances, we may also be required to disclose personal information to comply with the law.

Collection of Non-Identifiable Information

In order to allow you easy and convenient access to our websites, certain non-identifiable information is collected, as described below. We may share this information with our website providers to allow us to continually improve our websites.

Site Traffic Monitoring

During each and every visit to one of our websites, we will collect non-identifiable information by tracking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on an aggregate basis. IP addresses do not track personal information about you. They simply allow us to monitor how our sites are being used and what information is being accessed. BMW St. John’s will use this information to ensure its websites remain useful and convenient, in order to meet and satisfy your needs.

Access to your Personal Information

At your request, we will let you know what personal information we have in our possession about you, what it is being used for, and to whom it has been disclosed. We will also provide you with access to your personal information that is in our possession, however, some exceptions may apply. We will respond to your inquiry within thirty (30) days. There may be reasonable costs associated with your request.

Retention of Personal Information

BMW St. John’s will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected and to comply with applicable laws.

Security

At BMW St. John’s we are committed to protecting the personal information in our possession. A number of security measures are used to maintain the safety of your personal information. We have implemented security measures which include the use of: physical secure data centres and premises; internal security policies and procedures; defined internal segregation of duties; and electronic access controls such as passwords and encryption technology.

Third Party Links

Even though our websites may include links to other websites, outside of BMW St. John’s we are not responsible for the content, links or privacy practices of those sites. We provide access to these linked sites for your convenience only and you access them at your own risk. However, we will welcome any comments you may have regarding these linked websites.

Getting Answers to Your Concerns

BMW St. John’s has developed policies and procedures to respond to individual complaints and questions relating to privacy. We will investigate and attempt to resolve all complaints. We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days. Should you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy please contact our Privacy contact as noted above.

By visiting our websites you are agreeing to our privacy policy as outlined above. BMW St. John’s reserves the right to change this Policy from time to time and will provide notice of any significant changes on this website.